ANNEX GUIDELINES ASSOL’S GUIDELINES PROCEDURES MANUALS BOOK 0 SECOND EDITION 2012 ASSOL ASSOCIAÇÃO DE SOLIDARIEDADE SOCIAL DE LAFÕES OLIVEIRA DE FRADES PORTUGAL WWW.ASSOL.PT - 1 Introduction The Procedures Manuals aim to organize and structure, in a single document, the guidelines, in which ASSOL compromises to follow on determinant aspects of its activity. The Procedures Manuals systematize the procedures for the provision of support to the people served. Staff can find, here, information about the ASSOL’s guidelines, the methodological and philosophic principles, the support programmes, the activities and procedures to follow and the instruments to use. ASSOL is an agency of the community, which develops all of its activity in a straight interaction with the people served, their families, staff, volunteers and all the social organizations with which it interacts. Hence result the guidelines and procedures that demand an active involvement of all these parts. The manuals are organized in 8/9 books. This book 0 is, now, object of a second edition in order to improve and complete it with a better description of the several structural policies of ASSOL. The several books, which compile the Procedures Manuals, need the reading of some of the books published by ASSOL, which are the essential tools to deepen on the Agency knowledge. The Procedures Manuals are composed by a set of 9 Books. Book 0 – ASSOL’s Guidelines It starts by presenting ASSOL’s history, mission, values and philosophic and methodological principles, followed by the framework of the rights of the people served and the ethical obligations of the staff. It also defines the framework of the agency’s governance, the relationship among all the parts and it finalizes by pointing out the framing lines of the activity, such as continuous improvement, innovation and development. Book 1 – Philosophy and Methodological Approaches It develops the problems of self-determination, quality of life and empowerment and presents the general lines of the Gentle Teaching and the Person Centred Planning, which are considered as the ASSOL’s working methodologies. Book 2 – Integrated Project and Early Intervention These activities have the particularity of being totally developed in partnership with the health and education services. The manual establishes the key processes and their activities, registration instruments and the results indicators in the supporting answers to children and young people (over 16) from birth until the end of their school age. Book 3 – Vocational Training Vocational Training is an activity co-financed by the European Social Fund, therefore, subdue to several norms and regulations, which frame the activity. The main specificity is the fact that all the vocational training is assured in normal work environments. The manual frames the interaction with the legal regulations in order to achieve the respect for the individualization of the processes, which are demanded by the different needs of the trainees. The key processes, their activities, the registration instruments and the results indicators are established for this activity. 2 Book 4 – CAO (Occupational Activities’ Centre) The first part frames this response in the legal system and its history throughout the ASSOL’s history and the goal of promoting social inclusion and self-determination. The second part describes the key processes of the application, sheltering and evaluation, supports’ negotiation, development of the activities and evaluation of the activities and supports. It also presents the results indicators and the registration instruments to use. Book 5 – FORUM (Social Occupational Centre) This book is similar to the previous one, only with some specificity due to the fact that the people served have a disabling mental illness and the fact that this unit has an extensive partnership with the Psychiatric and Mental Care Service from Viseu’s Hospital. The key processes, registration instruments and indicators are very similar to the ones from the CAO, however, in the FORUM, the healthcare constitutes an autonomous key process. Book 6 – Residential Care – Sheltered Home This book starts with the presentation of the service, followed by the description of the key processes of the application, sheltering and evaluation, supports’ negotiation, development of the activities of support and, as specificities of this unit, the key processes of nutrition and food, premises’ cleaning, security and environmental health and procedures in situations of emergency and other unusual situations. Book 7 – Support Functions to the Activities It documents the procedures to follow in support activities to the ones which are, themselves, essential to the provision of quality services: administrative support, premises’ cleaning, security and environmental health. Book 8 – Support Functions to the Management It documents the procedures to be followed in central activities to the agency, even though not directly present in the provision of support: accounting, administrative control, staff’s performance evaluation, innovation and development, measurement of the satisfaction rates, foresight and control of carelessness situations, abuse and discrimination and the relationship with the stakeholders. Additional Documents This set of manuals provides the basis to the stakeholders’ action in ASSOL. There are also two additional documents that must be referred due to its importance. Functions Manual It describes all the functions, but also the abilities needed and the several functional connections among the several functional groups. 3 Quality Manual This document emerges from the structure of the EQUASS referential and develops the way how ASSOL approaches each one of the fifty criteria, the way how its dissemination was made, the results achieved throughout the years in the different indicators and the evolutional possibilities indicated by the conducted benchmarking actions. 4 CHAPTER 1 HISTORICAL AND DEVELOPED ACTIVITIES ASSOL was founded on the 22nd March 1987, by initiative of a group organized in ACROF (Associação Cultural e Recreativa de Oliveira de Frades). In 1986, these people, with different qualifications, inspired by other experiences and already acknowledging some serious social situations of people with disabilities, decided to make a weighing of people with disabilities and their real life conditions on the municipality. ASSOL was created to be a tool which would facilitate the answer of the community to the needs found. Being ASSOL supplied with a house with a backyard in the town of Oliveira de Frades by Mrs. Antonieta de Jesus Saraiva, in 1987, it reunited the minimal required conditions to the impulsion of its activity, which would happen on the 13th February 1989, with the beginning of the first vocational training. Ever since, a long path has been made, which led to the development of several support services: 1991 Integrated Project 1991 Occupational Activities Centre (CAO) 1992 Opening of S. Pedro do Sul’s first Centre 1993 Programme of Domiciliary Visits 1995 Shelter Home 1997 First Foster Families 1998 Vocational Training in Tondela 1999 Social Occupational Forum 2001 Vocational Training in Castro Daire 2002 New Centre in S. Pedro do Sul 2007 Early Intervention 2011 Vocational Training in Tondela EQUASS ASSURANCE CERTIFICATION Happened in 2010 as a consequence of ASSOL’s participation in Prometheus Project, that aimed at the validation of the new EQUASS model. 1.1- DEVELOPED ACTIONS Early Intervention It operates since 2007, supporting children under the age of three with severe mental disabilities. In the region of Lafões, Early Intervention is based on the work of local teams of intervention, being the main actors the Healthcare Centres and Education Services. ASSOL’s intervention is fairly limited because the cooperation agreement with the Social Security, foreseeing support to forty children, only allows the partial allocation of a social worker, a psychologist and a speech therapist. 5 Integrated Project The first Agreement with the Board Education was established in 1991. The project aims to support the school and social integration of school-age children and young people (over 16), who are subdued to special education measures. ASSOL’s team works as a supplementary resource to the school services, with special incidence in areas such as psychology, speech therapy and transition to adulthood. The project also covers the municipalities of Tondela and Castro Daire. The greatest achievement of the regional schools is the fact that all disabled students attend the regular public school system. The total population of the covered municipalities was, in 2010, of 89 628 inhabitants, being the school population of 12 216 students, framed in 17 schools and groupings. About 3% of these students are supported by the project. Vocational Training Vocational Training was the first of ASSOL’s activities, operating since the 13th February 1989. ASSOL is an accredited training agency (by the public services, currently DGERT from MTSS). The vocational training is organized in three centres: Oliveira de Frades, Castro Daire and Tondela, being that, on the last few years, the courses of general assistant and factory worker have been operating with about 100 trainees. The greatest specificity is the fact that all technological practical training is performed in natural labour contexts and ASSOL is supported by private enterprises, local and regional authorities, other IPSS solidarity and the society in general.